


Alignment

by Frejennix



Series: Missing Pieces [2]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Gore, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Flashbacks, M/M, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-23
Updated: 2018-03-23
Packaged: 2019-04-06 18:55:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14063340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frejennix/pseuds/Frejennix
Summary: Axton wanted to have a purpose again.Maya wanted answers.Gaige needed protection.Angel needed all of them.The story of how Axton, Maya, and Gaige came to work for the biggest mass murderer the universe has ever seen.





	Alignment

**Author's Note:**

> So this is directly related to my other fic, Missing Pieces. I suppose if you wanted to, you could read this without reading that, but reading that would help clear things up a lot.
> 
> For those who have read Missing Pieces, the present portion of this story takes place in the final chapters.

"Maya?" Axton's voice cut through the haze of pain. "Maya, can you hear me?"

"Ugh...Axton, what in _the fuck_ were we drinking last night?" Maya groaned, clutching her head. "This is the last time I let you pick the bar, I swear."

"Maya, try to think back."

"What are you talking about...oh." Maya said, her eyes snapping open as a look of horror crossed her face. "Oh _God_."

"Yeah, that's the gist of it." Axton grumbled.

"Where's Angel? Is she okay?" She asked sharply, trying to sit up and gasping in pain as her head pounded. 

"Jack just ECHOed us. He's got her, she's safe." Gaige said, helping Maya settle back into a sitting position as best she could with one arm. 

"Good." Maya said, relaxing slightly. "Um...not to be rude, but who are they?" She asked, as she noticed the other occupants of the vehicle. 

"They're...they're Rhys' family. They came to help Angel, and now they're taking us to Opportunity." Gaige replied, casting a wary glance at the Pandorans. 

“I thought Rhys had a falling out with his family.” Maya said, suspicious. 

“They made up.”

"...right." Maya said, drawing Gaige a little closer to her. She may have trusted Rhys, but he wasn’t here, and she didn’t like the way either of the women looked at them. 

"If you want to ask us something, ask it already." Axton said to the Pandorans after a long uncomfortable silence, broken only by the occasional crash as the vehicle rocketed over the Pandoran landscape.

"How can you stand to work for someone like that?" Sasha asked, and no one had any delusions over whom she was referring to. "How can Rhys stand to work for, to _be_ _with_ someone like him?"

"Rhys...Rhys is something different." Axton said, his voice strained as they lurched particularly violently, groaning as his head smacked against the caravan wall. "Aside from Angel, I've never seen Jack treat anyone like Rhys." He glanced at the girls out of the corner of his eye. "Not even you, Gaigey."

"So what's your excuse for working for a psychopath?" August asked, looking over his shoulder before Fiona smacked his arm. 

"Keep looking at the road. If we die in a fiery crash, I don't care what Sasha says, I'm going to kill you."

"Alright, alright, woman."

"He...look, we won't lie to you and say he's not as bad as they say, because for the most part, he absolutely is." Axton said quietly, drawing attention to himself once more. "Most of the time, he'll kill you before you've even thought about betraying him."

"Then why-"

"It's hard to explain." Maya said, rubbing a hand over her face. "It’s not as black and white as you want it to be."

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and looked up into Fiona's face. 

"Try. Please." Fiona said quietly. "We need to understand."

Axton, Maya, and Gaige looked at each other for a moment, sharing a silent conversation. Finally, Axton sighed, sitting up with difficulty. "I'll admit, I probably wasn't in the best frame of mind when I took my first job from Jack. I had been kicked out of my regiment and my marriage in the course of a single night, and since then I had been scouring Pandora for any lowlife with a price on his head just so I could stave off the crushing boredom of existence."

"That doesn't seem like a very dire situation." Fiona said judgmentally.  

"It was to me." Axton muttered, a shadow passing over his face. "Then I heard an ad for Hyperion on the radio. 'Are you hungry for excitement, fame and eternal glory'?" He said, trying to mimic the over the top enthusiasm he had been seduced by all those years ago. "Becoming a Hyperion Vault Hunter sounded fun and dangerous, and at that point, I was pretty ambivalent on whether I lived or died anymore. So, yeah, I took a damn job from Handsome Jack."

\---

" _This_ is the best we could come up with?" Jack asked derisively, his mismatched eyes locked on his ECHOscreen. The video feed showed the latest applicants to the Vault Hunter program, currently aboard the train en route to Opportunity.

"At least some of them look like they won't piss themselves the first time they see an alpha skag." Timothy said from over his shoulder. Jack glared at his double, making him shrink back from the vicious gaze. "I'm just trying to be helpful." Timothy said meekly. 

"Surely we can do better than this bunch of bandits." He snapped, his finger hovering over the big red button that would detonate the entire train. Before he could move, Nisha grabbed his wrist, and he turned his glare on her. 

"Maybe we could eventually." Nisha said, her purple-lipsticked lips stretched thin as she grimaced. "But we've run out of time, babe. Remember why we're doing this."

Jack had been less than thrilled with all the previous applicants, but as his latest intel had told him, he had outlived his opportunity to be picky. He needed a situation taken care of, and this disappointing batch of cannon fodder would have to do.

"Fine. You're up, Timmy." Jack said, waving his hand at the door. "Give them the spiel, put ‘em through their paces, you should know the drill by now." 

"You got it, boss." Timothy said, heading towards the door, but before he reached it, it slid open, revealing Angel and Aurelia Hammerlock.

"Daddy!" Angel cried, pulling her hand out of Aurelia's and running across the office, her braided pigtails bouncing happily. "Daddy, did you miss me?"

"Heeey there, baby girl!" Jack said, quickly closing the feed on his computer before angel could reach him. "Did you have fun with Auntie?"

"We had a marvelous time." Aurelia said, a small smile crossing her face as she entered the office at a much statelier pace. "You should think about finding some tutors for her, Jack. She's quite bright for someone so young." She paused as she drew level with Timothy. "Hello, darling." She said with a sultry purr. 

"H-Hi, Ms. Hammerlock." Timothy said, his ears turning red and his face heating up under the mask. "You look...uh, you look nice today."

"Oh GOD, please leave before you embarrass my face even more." Jack groaned. 

"Ignore him, darling." Aurelia said, walking her fingers up Timothy's vest. "And how many times do I have to tell you to call me Aurelia?"

"Hey you two! Flirt awkwardly on your own time!"

"Daddy what's a tu-tor?" Angel asked as she clambered onto Jack's chair, squeezing herself between Jack's legs and the arm of the throne. "Is it something Hyperion makes?" She said, carefully enunciating the word Hyperion in a way that made Jack's black heart melt. 

Remember why, Nisha had said. As if he could ever forget. It was the same reason he did everything. 

Nothing mattered but his little girl's happiness and safety. 

Absolutely nothing. 

\---

"After we arrived, there were marksmanship tests, obstacle courses, background checks, psych evals, you name it. I don't think anyone on Pandora has ever been as thoroughly vetted as we were that day."

"What was he looking for?"

"No idea. Whatever it was, though, I must have had it. Most of the others...weren't as lucky."

"What happened to them?" Fiona asked, though she suspected that she already knew the answer. "The ones that didn't make the cut?"

"I don't know." Axton said cagily. 

"Bullshit." Sasha said under her breath. 

"I don't know _for sure_ that he killed them." Axton snapped. "I can only assume."

"Come on-"

"Do you want me to finish my story or not?" He said, changing the subject. "Anyway..."

\---

"Congrats, kiddo, you made it to the final round." Timothy said, his imitation of Jack flawless as he sprawled in the chair across the interrogation table. "Axton, was it?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"You scored in the top percentile of all our applicants. Granted, most of our applicants were friggin morons, but still, impressive." Timothy said, thumbing through Axton's file. "You were a sergeant in the Dahl military forces?"

"Yessir."

"Why'd you leave?"

"My commanding officer and ex-wife made it clear that if I had stayed, I would be killed by firing squad. So…here I am."

"Hmm." Tim cocked his head, looking into the distance as Jack spoke in his ear, telling him what to say. "I like you, and it seems like you've got the skills we've been looking for. We just need...one last thing."

"What is it?"

"Think of it as a test run, to see how you behave outside of the practice courts. Just one measly little job between you and the career of a lifetime, kiddo."

"Great. So what exactly is this job?"

\---

"Well?" Sasha asked impatiently when Axton paused. "What was the job?"

"He had me and the rest of the top candidates destroy a town in the Badlands that had been overrun by psychos and bandits. Burn it to the ground, he said. Leave no survivors. He wanted it off the face of the planet."

"And you just took his word that the town was full of psychos?"

"Do I look like an idiot?" Axton growled, offended. "I did recon on the place before I went in. It was full of psychos, all right, but…”

“But?” Fiona pressed.

“There were a few other people too." Axton admitted, staring out the window.

"Those people could have been innocent-" she began, her voice outraged.

"No one I killed that day was innocent." He said with conviction, cutting her off. 

"How can you possibly be sure?"

"Because..." He clenched his hands. "Because when we were doing reconnaissance on the place, we saw something. The locals had...brainwashed the psychos into this weird sort of religious cult, and we arrived just in time to watch a ritual sacrifice. I watched as they sliced a screaming little girl open down the middle and pulled out her heart. And they all passed it around like it was a goddamn apple and...and..."

\---

Axton wished he had something other than stale water to wash his mouth out with. He could still taste the bile in the back of his throaty from when he had forced himself not to vomit at the sight of those people _eating_ that little girl's heart. 

But worse than that were the echoes of the screams from the other girls, the ones that had all looked very similar to that first one, chained up on the walls and forced to watch. Axton righted his grip on his gun, determination coursing through him. 

"Before we blow this place, we gotta get those girls out of there." He said to his comrades. No one said anything. "Seriously? What kind of animals are you?"

"Handsome Jack said if we leave anyone alive, we won't get paid." One of them said, scratching his goatee. "I ain't risking not getting paid for some little girls."

"Yeah man, it ain't worth dying just to save the bitches." Said another man with a horrible case of Stygian acne, picking idly at one of the green zits on his chin. 

It suddenly occurred to Axton with a disturbing amount of clarity that he was working with the bad guys on this job. Maybe even... _for_ the bad guys.

He clenched the barrel of his gun tightly, resisting the urge to shoot his companions where they stood. He'd be doing the universe a favor, certainly. 

"Fine." Axton growled instead, already formulating a plan to sneak away later. He would save those girls. 

It was the right thing to do. 

\---

"I managed to convince the others to wait and gather more intel before they went in. Go under cover of darkness when the sun finally decided to set. They agreed, mostly because they all wanted to be _alive_ to collect the bounty. Me on the other hand, I didn't care if I died saving those girls. So I went in by myself a couple of hours later and I slaughtered every last one of those fucks and I hadn't felt that good in... _months_.”

“Good?” Fiona repeated. “You felt _good_ killing them?”

“I was doing something useful again.” Axton shrugged. “Sure, it was bloody, and brutal, but it was for a good reason. Or…what felt like one."

\---

"Why?" Axton asked, kneeling above the last man alive, his jaw clenched in rage as blood from the man’s ruined legs seeped into his pants, making the material and the earth beneath him squelch. "What were you going to gain by killing those girls?"

"It wasn't about those girls. Those girls were just...collateral. Necessary sacrifices in pursuit of a much bigger prize." The man said, grinning grotesquely, blood caked across his gums. 

"What prize?" He asked, jamming his pistol into the man’s neck, forcing his head back violently. “Tell me!”

"To let Handsome Jack know that we were told about _her_. That we knew his secret. To let him know that no matter what he does, she's _never_ going to be safe forever." He said, blood-flecked spittle flying from his mouth. "Tell him that, when you see him. Tell him _everything_ you saw."

"What do you get out of this?" He asked as he cocked his pistol, already adding this man to the count of the dead in his head. 

"I die knowing I expose Handsome Jack's greatest weakness." The man said, as he started to cackle. "I made him show his hand."

Axton had had enough of this guy. With a final shot, the man was dead, a smile still stretched across his face even as his brains splattered against the far wall. 

"Crazy piece of shit." He grumbled, rolling of the cooling corpse and just...just sitting for a moment, amid death and blood and bullet casings. 

He wasn’t sure, but he thought he might be getting sick of at least two of those things. 

" _Very_ well done, pumpkin."

Axton whirled around onto his knees, his gun at the ready. To his shock, Handsome Jack materialized in the center of the room, a malevolent smirk on his face as he applauded, the sound echoing in the empty space.

"Afternoon, sir." Axton said, unable to keep the surprise out of his voice as he got to his feet. "I can't say I was expecting you to show up."

"I've been monitoring all your ECHOs since you lot left Helios." Jack said, walking towards Axton as he surveyed the carnage around him. "Once you left the rest of the idiots stranded in the desert, I knew you were the one to watch." He kicked at the bloody remains of one of the bandits, torn to shreds by turret fire. "You did good here. I'm actually a little impressed."

"What did he mean? What did any of this mean?" Axton asked.

"...tell you what. Let's you and I go get those girls downstairs out of this hellhole, and I'll think about maybe telling you... _never_." Jack said, walking past Axton and towards the stairs. "Come on, cupcake, time is money!"

"I can't go down there." Axton said, appalled. Jack stopped in his tracks, turning around slowly. 

"Why the _hell_ not?" He asked dangerously. 

"Look at me, I'm covered in fucking blood and guts, I'm just gonna traumatize them even more!" Axton snapped. 

Whatever Handsome Jack had been expecting, it sure as hell wasn't that. He stared at Axton, blank faced, for several minutes, the silence echoing around the cavern hollowly, the way it only does when too much has been said. 

"Alright." He said slowly. "Then maybe you can tie up some loose ends for me. Those losers are still camped out where you left them. Take care of them, in a painful sort of way, would ya?"

"Not that I care, but...Why?" Axton asked. “I thought you wanted more Vault Hunters. And they were gonna do what you asked.”

"They're scum that would let little girls die for _money_. I would like nothing more than to kill them with my own hands, but I’m sure you’re up for the job. Do you even need more of a reason?"

"Not really. Just curious." Axton said, shrugging and already adding to the total. "Consider it done, sir."

He made it about ten paces away before Jack called out. 

"How would you like an even better job than this Vault Hunting gig?"

"Sorry?"

"It turns out, Axton, that you are exactly the type of person that I didn't know I was looking for. And I have a very lucrative proposition for you, if you're interested."

"...what kind of proposition are we talking about, sir?"

\---

“Did you do it?” Sasha asked. “Did you kill those guys in the desert?”

“Of course I did. Wouldn’t you?” Axton scoffed. "After that mission, Jack promoted me himself. Co-chief of security with a very specific target. He said...he said he'd been looking for a man with my kind of temperament. That was the day I first met Angel. She was just a little thing, maybe three years old, but she looked exactly like the girls they had been slicing open.” He fiddled with something around his neck, his eyes distant. “She looked at me with those big trusting blue eyes, and she was so carefree and innocent and...That was it. I've worked for Jack ever since."

He stared at his hands for a moment, his gaze hard and distant. "I've been Angel's weaponized shadow for five years and I've never once regretted anything I've done to protect that little girl. Not once."

\----

"Axton!" Angel called, jumping up from her seat outside Jack's office and running at the commando. 

"Hey there, sweetheart." Axton exclaimed, catching her as she threw herself at him, hoisting her up on his shoulders. "You seem excited. What's going on today?"

"Daddy says I get to hang out with you until my lessons with Felicity!" Angel trilled, her words lisping slightly through the gap in her teeth and melting Axton’s heart. She bent over his head to look him in the face, her pigtails dangling down past her ears. "But he wants to talk to you first."

"Well, I better get in there so we can go have fun right?" Axton said, tumbling her forward off his shoulders and swinging her under his arm, righting her on the floor as she giggled helplessly.

“Can we play tactical hide and seek again?”

“Only if you're up to losing.” He teased.

“Nuh-uh! Today I'm gonna beat you!”

“We’ll see about that, little lady.” Axton said, ruffling her hair. "You gonna wait out here for a minute?"

"Yep!"

"Good girl." He said, giving her a crooked smile and a wink. "I'll be back in a sec!" He called over his shoulder. He nodded to the security cameras. "Watch her another sec, Felicity."

"I am _always_ watching her, Sergeant." Felicity replied haughtily as the doors slid open. 

Inside the office, the atmosphere was tense. Axton crossed the room with purpose, coming to a stop in from of Jack's desk. The CEO was slouched in his chair, glaring at something on his computer. Nisha sat on the arm of his chair, and looked up as Axton approached. He gave her a curt nod in acknowledgment. 

"Nice to see you again, Sheriff."

"Howdy, soldier." Nisha said, crossing her arms.

"How are things in Lynchwood?" He said politely, trying to get a feel for the situation.

"Lynchwood's the same as always, full of outlaws and things to shoot. Just the way I like it." She glanced at Jack out of the corner of her eye, and cleared her throat. "But that's a conversation for another time." 

Recognizing her not-so-subtle hint, Axton turned his attention to Jack. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yeah." Jack said, throwing an ECHOdevice across his desk. Axton picked it up, scanning over the file displayed on it. It was a personnel file, one of the older board members that had been at Hyperion since before Axton. 

"Sir?" Axton began, confused.

"He mentioned Angel during a board meeting. Implied that I can’t do my job because of her, and that maybe she'd be safer elsewhere." Jack said, his face dark with rage. 

Axton was surprised that anyone outside of Jack’s inner circle knew about his daughter, but didn’t let it show on his face. "Seems sort of innocuous, sir-"

"You didn't see the fucker's face. That was a threat, a direct threat against Angel." He pushed himself out of his throne, and Axton watched warily, noting the tremors in his employer's hands. Nisha was also watching him carefully, occasionally glancing at Axton to gauge his reactions. "I want him dead. Actually, I want every single person on the board who knows about Angel dead. All of them."

"All of them, sir?"

"ALL OF THEM!" Jack shouted, slamming his hand on his desk. "The son of a bitch looked me in the face and threatened my baby girl, and they sat there and _watched_. NO ONE THREATENS MY ANGEL! _NO_ _ONE_!"

Axton glanced back down at the ECHO, his mind racing. 

"Well?" Jack said impatiently.

Axton looked up, his face impassive but for the vicious glint in his eyes. 

"How'd you want it done, sir?" He said calmly. "Quietly, or bloody?"

Jack paused, then grinned. 

" _Bloody_."

\---

Axton glanced at the security feed. Just one more and then they'd all be inside. And...Bingo. 

"Felicity, be a sweetheart and lock down conference room A, would ya?" he said, stretching his arms over his head.

"I don't approve of this." Felicity said, even as a notification pinged, signaling that the room had been sealed. 

"Oh come on, pretty lady.” Axton cajoled, rolling his eyes. “This doesn't even _rank_ on the list of terrible things he's done."

"I'm not talking about Jack, Sergeant. I'm talking about _you_."

"What? What the hell did I do?" Axton squawked.

"You're aiding and abetting him! You're doing it right now!"

"This is my job, Felicity. Don't you want Angel safe?"

"Is she really in danger from these people?"

"Don't underestimate what a person with a lot of money and a mean grudge can do."

"I don't want to be a part of this. And judging by the fact that you asked me to do this, you don't want to either."

"Hey, I have no problems doing my job."

"So why aren't you doing it?"

Axton didn't have a good answer for that as he continued to watch the video feed. 

\---

"Where the hell is he?" Joshua Simmons growled, tapping his spindly fingers against the conference room table. There was a murmur of agreement from the rest of the room, dissent quickly rising through the assembled board members. "It's been over half an hour!"

"Have you tried ECHOing him?" Leslie Prewett asked. "The idiot probably forgot. Or he's killed his assistant again."

"Well." Simmons said after the condescending laughter died down. "While we have the time, we should discuss the rakk hive in the room. What are we going to do about Jack?"

"Ugh, this again?" Garret Wilson groaned. "He’s good for business, Simmons. Stock prices keep going up; we're breaking ground on the eridium mines-"

"He can't be controlled. He is volatile, inexperienced, and he's going to run this company into the ground. He needs to be reigned in."

"By blackmailing him with his own daughter? That seems extreme." Wilson muttered. 

"He won't listen to reason, and he has proven that he's willing to go to any lengths for her. I say we use that." Simmons said with a sinister smile. “I think I’ve already sent him a message he won’t soon forget.”

Prewett opened her mouth to reply, but was interrupted by the doors sliding open. All turned expectantly, expecting to see jack strutting into the meeting, but only saw Jack's newest commando lapdog entering the door.

"Apologies for the wait, ladies and gentlemen." Axton said, a fake smile pasted on his face and a square metal box in his hands. "Handsome Jack has been temporarily delayed. However, he sent this ahead for your perusal. He is very eager to hear your first impressions."

"What is it?" Simmons asked, looking at the box with a greedy glint in his eyes. 

"I'm terribly sorry, sir, but he requested that I present the product to you last, Mr. Simmons." Axton said, trying to maintain his composure. "Miss Prewett? If you would just throw this onto the conference table?"

"Why me?"

"I believe you'll find out if you toss it." Axton said, swallowing his revulsion as he gave her a wink and a smile. Prewett blushed and let out a little girly chuckle before doing as bade. 

The instant the box hit the table it sprang apart, unfolding into a Dahl Sabre turret. 

"What the hell is that?" Simmons spluttered, backing against the wall. Axton smiled, glancing up at the additional turrets that had appeared out of the walls.

"Glad to see you joining the party, Felicity."

"You were right after all." Felicity said over the loudspeaker. "I found the evidence on his mainframe. He communicated with the bandits in the psycho town. That was his...message to Jack.” The turrets adjusted themselves to point directly at Simmons. “I suppose paranoia isn't paranoia when it's earned."

"What is going on?"

"This is what happens when you threaten Jack's family." Axton said. "Ready, sweetheart?"

"Please don't do this! I can pay you! More money than you'll ever see in your life!" The man begged. "I don't want to die!"

"You shouldn't have threatened Angel, then, buddy. No one messes with Jack's daughter unless they want to deal with us." Axton said, pulling an SMG off his back. "Eat ‘em up, ladies." He said as he began firing. 

\---

"But...He's a monster." Sasha said, quiet. “You work for a monster.”

"So? Just because he's bad that means people are allowed to take it out on Angel? No. I take out the people who want to kill an innocent girl just for being Handsome Jack's daughter. If that makes me a monster too, then that's fine. I'll sleep just as well as I ever did."

“But-“

“No.” Axton said, turning to the women seated next to him. “It’s someone else’s turn now. I’ve said my piece.”

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter covers Maya's tale. 
> 
> Reviews water my crops, clear my skin, and help me write faster! :D


End file.
